AtWhatMileage
Glass · 6 owner reports

Other visibility problem on the 2017 Audi Q7

Only 6 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.

Reports of this failure 6
With an odometer reading 6
Reports per 1,000 built 0.3 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 83%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $150–$1,400
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 18th

When other visibility problem gets reported

There are 6 reports of other visibility problem on the 2017 Audi Q7, 6 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 18th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 6 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 5,963 miles — —

Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.

What a percentile can and cannot tell you here

These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.

What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.

Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.

What happens, and what it costs

Putting it right typically runs $150–$1,400 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.

The same failure on other years

The same failure is reported on 7 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2017, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 100,000 miles.

By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 6; the 2017 has 6. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.

If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.

Median
  1. 2007 Audi Q7 other visibility problem 85k
  2. 2009 Audi Q7 other visibility problem 45k
  3. 2010 Audi Q7 other visibility problem 92k
  4. 2011 Audi Q7 other visibility problem 101k
  5. 2012 Audi Q7 other visibility problem 52k
  6. 2013 Audi Q7 other visibility problem 70k
  7. 2014 Audi Q7 other visibility problem 47k
  8. 2015 Audi Q7 other visibility problem 61k
  9. 2017 (this one) 6k
  10. 2018 Audi Q7 other visibility problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  11. 2019 Audi Q7 other visibility problem 20k
  12. 2020 Audi Q7 other visibility problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  13. 2021 Audi Q7 other visibility problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  14. 2023 Audi Q7 other visibility problem 271
  15. 2025 Audi Q7 other visibility problem
    no odometer readings given
    —

Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

Head up display reflector system, under specific light condition (sun orientation) produces glares which can vary in size and brightness. Some of the reflections and glares are small and can be ignored but some glares are very bright and rather large and positioned right on the eye line height. It is a major distraction for a driver. This can be safety issue if glare occurs in a spot covering a street light or pedestrian.

650 miles NHTSA complaint 1325643 filed 2016-10-13

There is a defect with the heads up display that causes a bright glare to be reflected in the windshield. Right in the drivers line of sight. This happens on sunny days at midday while driving certain directions. Please check the audi world forum and you will see postings of other people who have the same problem. There are photos of the glare as well. Search audi q7 head up display windshield glare on the audi world forum. Lots of pictures of the glare. The glare happens while driving and moves around as the car changes direction. Think of a mirror reflecting light. The shiny surface of the head up display case reflects a bright light onto the windshield.

7,926 miles NHTSA complaint 1358227 filed 2017-02-23

When the steering wheel is turned there is a squeaky sound as if something is rubbing against some other thing. I took it to the dealership and they couldn't figure out the problem but did recognize the issue. They changed the whole suspension and the electrical steering system but the noise is still there. I took my car back from and was on a vacation when noticed large amount of smoke coming from below the vehicle. I parked the car on the side and checked for fire but there was none. I let the car cool down and then parked the car in the hotel. Later I drove back home and had a similar issue of smoke coming from below the car. I have dropped the car for the third time in the last 1.5 months to the dealership. It appears that there is some kind of manufacturing fault in it or it's a lemon that they sold to me. The car was stationery when the smoke was noticed but I believe that the smoke must be there even in motion as well. The squeaky sound comes when the car is in motion at low speed specifically when turning.

17,500 miles NHTSA complaint 1394381 filed 2017-07-24

Also reported on the 2017 Audi Q7

Other lighting problem

84 reports median 67k

Other electrical problem

42 reports median 64k

Headlight failure or clouding

30 reports median 80k

Water pump failure

27 reports median 57k

Excessive oil consumption

22 reports median 108k

Other engine problem

20 reports median 43k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 6 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.

Complaints are voluntary, so 6 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.

Questions this page answers

At what mileage does other visibility problem happen on the 2017 Audi Q7?

Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 5,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other visibility problem on the 2017 Audi Q7?

6 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.

What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars

Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed